Investigation of paracetamol degradation using LED and UV-C photo-reactors

This work investigates the efficiency of LED and UV-C photo-reactors for paracetamol degradation using advanced oxidative processes. Among the evaluated processes, photo-Fenton was the most efficient for both radiations. Degradations greater than 81% (λ 197 nm) and 91% (λ 243 nm) were obtained in the kinetic study. These degradations were also observed by means of the reduction in the peaks in both spectral scanning and high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. The good fit of the Chan and Chu kinetic model shows that the degradation reaction has pseudo-first order behavior. Toxicity tests did not indicate the inhibition of growth of Lactuca sativa seeds and Escherichia coli bacterium. However, the growth of strains of the Salmonella enteritidis bacterium was inhibited in all the samples, demonstrating that only this bacterium was sensitive to solutions. The proposed empirical models obtained from the 24 factorial designs were able to predict paracetamol degradation. These models could, at the same levels assessed, be used to predict the percentage of degradation in studies using other organic compounds. The LED and UV-C photo-reactors were, when employing the photo-Fenton process, able to degrade paracetamol, thus highlighting the efficiency of LED radiation when its power (three times smaller) is compared to that of UV-C radiation.